Named one of Rolling Stone's best 25 artists on MySpace, Shannon Hurley's alternative-pop singer-songwriter music has been heard all over the U.S. on the FM1 list of Muzak. She has released two full length albums, "Ready to Wake Up" (2007) and...

Named one of Rolling Stone's best 25 artists on MySpace, Shannon Hurley's alternative-pop singer-songwriter music has been heard all over the U.S. on the FM1 list of Muzak. She has released two full length albums, "Ready to Wake Up" (2007) and "California" (2011).

She is also one half of the electronic chill-pop duo Lovers & Poets (along with husband and bassist Ben Eisen).

Shannon's voice can be heard on Protoculture Feat. Shannon Hurley- Sun Gone Down (and a remix by Alex M.O.R.P.H. and Chriss Ortega), which has been heavily featured on Armin Van Buuren's 'A State of Trance' Radio show. The track was released on Paul Oakenfold's compilation "Never Mind the Bollocks-Here's Paul Oakenfold" on July 15th.

California In Her Soul by By Tony Cuaderes Jr, for Style Magazine (Vietnam)California in Her SoulPublished: 02/2010Head Note: Vietnam is lucky to have a budding American artist to perform for us live. Her name is Shannon Hurley, and this is her California story.One fine...

California In Her Soul by By Tony Cuaderes Jr, for Style Magazine (Vietnam)California in Her Soul
Published: 02/2010
Head Note: Vietnam is lucky to have a budding American artist to perform for us live. Her name is Shannon Hurley, and this is her California story.
One fine day while I was online, I received an invitation from Park Hyatt to watch this American singer, whose name is Shannon Hurley, who will be here until February. What interested me is that she was named by Rolling Stone magazine, pop music’s music authority, as one of the top 25 singers at MySpace, so I decided to pay her a visit to get to know more about her and her music.
Of course, before that, I got to listen to her songs available at YouTube. It only took me a few seconds into the video of Sunrise, her breakout song that Rolling Stone took notice, to become a fan. It turned out that we are indeed very lucky to have Shannon to perform for us because she brings with her fresh music coming from and inspired by Los Angeles, California. Fans of Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat will find that her music belongs to the same category of music: folksy, easy to listen and contemporary. Her singing style reminds me of Sarah McLachlan; Sunrise made me recall Sarah’s signature song Adia.
So I was half-expecting a come-worship-me-I-am-a-demigod sort of attitude that, unfortunately, I have seen in less famous people. But, to my surprise, when I entered the hotel lobby, this was our first encounter:
“Hi, are you Tony?”
Yes. You must be Ms. Shannon Hurley.
“Yeah. I suppose you must be Tony because I see you carrying a magazine.” A copy of Style magazine was with me.
Not only she was welcoming, she is perceptive as well. I immediately perceived California-style friendliness in her.
Not Really Performing
My first question was why.
Why did she choose to stay away from the USA at the time when her popularity is beginning to take off?
“It’s a gamble, but it’s also a great environment for building my musical chops. It’s almost like a school for me, you know, coming here and being able to perform here so much. It was amazing,” she says. LA suffers from a glut of great musical talents; indeed, competition is so fierce amongst performing artists that some pay money, not the other way around, just to perform, to own the stage for a few hours and get heard. Here, not only she could sing four hours six days a week from 8:00 PM to midnight with a built-in audience, but to do so for more than a month.
Yet she doesn’t feel like she’s performing at all. “I feel like I’m at home and I’m performing a house concert, so I feel very comfortable here,” Shannon claims, “I feel I am performing in a gigantic coffee house and everybody’s my guest (laughs).”
So it’s not like you left LA at all? I ask.
“It’s not,” she says with a childlike excitement in her eyes which I have observed all this time. “And I do not know what to expect when I came here. I told myself, ‘OK, the environment here is going to be rigid and formal’ but it’s not.”
Inspired by Vietnam
“I’ve already written several songs in my hotel room,” she declares.
Is she inspired by Vietnam?
“Yes, and also about my relationship I had with my husband, who is back. He’s in Nashville, [Tennessee] right now, and so, just being away from him and trying to convey to him everything that’s happening. I wish I could share this experience with him. I want to share the excitement with him, you know…” These songs, the fruits of her inspiration, will soon be appearing on the next album. Make it two albums: a yet-untitled solo project, and another, named Lovers and Poets which is electronica-based. Together, they are a follow-up to her debut album entitled Ready to Wake up Again.
A Musical Family
“My grandma was in vaudeville back in Chicago back in the 1920s and 1930s,” she reveals. That era was when the theatre genre was in vogue. I just asked her if music is in her blood. “She is doing contests for people who would like to look like Shirley Temple. And my great-grandmother was in vaudeville too. Growing up, I remember my mother singing with a rock band, so I would hide every time I hear the drum or the electric guitar. Eventually, I was getting into it, kinda absorbed it. My mom used to sing top forty songs like Donna Summer and I would get into that too because I heard her singing.”
She did not have any formal training other than around four months with a teacher when she was eight, confessing that she was not a good student. “I was interested [in playing piano] in the weirdest way, because I was not interested in playing classical music, but then I was watching a lot of MTv, and this video of the hit Red Corvette [from eighties super singer Prince]. I said, ‘Oh, my God, it was awesome, I have to figure this out.’ I would also place my piano books upside then, and I would play it that way, and then I sometimes hear that the music sort of sound better that way.
She considers herself a “late-bloomer” in music, abandoning the piano until in 1995 when she joined bands in college at the University of Colorado, yet she seems to be making up for lost time. “I feel like people would pick up music a lot easier than I did, but I feel I worked harder than them, like, for every hour that somebody else practices, I feel like I worked four hours more.”
She had written at least one song back in college for her bands, but she would not write again until 2001 when she went to California. On campus, however, she have studied songwriting with Patrick Leonard, hit composer of some of Madonna’s top songs. She describes him as “reclusive,” though she was very lucky that, for only once ever, came out of his “reclusion” and taught probably his only songwriting class ever. He was a great influence; she described the class as “very eye-opening” and is still looking forward to say thanks for inspiring her to write and show him her compositions. “[He] gave me the courage to write, with little pieces of advice, like, ‘don’t be afraid to put your ideas down’ or even just how to demo a song, because I have no clue, and sometimes I need to have things spelled out for me. I have been trying to contact him, but it was impossible [with his schedule] how to get in touch with him. I love to show him what I’m doing.”
California Music
Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat are both are form California and they, along with Shannon, form part of the “folk revolution” happening in the state right now. Is there something in LA that…
“There is, actually,” she immediately replies, “Do you know Hotel Café in California? Have you heard of that?” she asks, turning the interviewer into an interviewee. Of course not: in truth, I’ve never been to the US before: “It’s a club, and it became successful at around 2002, and it is now the hot spot for all acts to come through. A lot of acts who performed there had gone out to make music for TV, like Grey’s Anatomy and Scrubs. They even built a tour around it.
“I performed at Hotel Café a lot [with other artists]. Maybe for some reason we sort of get along. I don’t know; maybe we starting getting this blend of a sound, you know, which is acoustic-based…”
Because it’s a café, I remark.
“Because it’s a café,” she confirms. And they more or less agreed that this is the kind of music they wanted: “So we end up playing for each other, we play on each other’s sets – it’s very much like a family thing. So that’s probably why a lot of artists in LA has this folksy, distinctive sound. We are like a team; we sort of fed each other.” Probably that’s the reason why Rolling Stones picked up her song: besides being beautiful, well-recorded and easy to listen to, Sunrise best represents the genre growing out of Los Angeles, a city known for being a major influence in world culture.
California Girl
She may have been born in Indiana, she may have graduated with a music degree in Colorado, but her heart is really in California. The Golden State has electrified her artistry and has definitely influenced her musical style. She started composing again in 2001 when she moved to LA, where, she says, her experience “really started,” even though she does not know “what to expect.” She even has a song, named California, which tells her story of her journey to that part of the US from a bleak experience. She’s not so sure yet, but she may name her next album as – surprised? – California.
A Creative Collaboration
If California is already in her soul, then it won’t be surprising that she and a host of other female California artists would join together, first as friends, then create a group in the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, which became a regular, which expanded into Don’t Call Us Tori, a formal group that aims to promote female singer-songwriter shows, complete with a website www.dontcallustori.com which started around 2003. Obviously they paid homage to Tori Amos, a well-respected artist, but at the same time, telling people that their music moved beyond her: “Don’t put us in pigeonholes, like someone is telling us ‘she sounds like Tori Amos.’ We’re beyond Tori Amos.”
It is the group’s mission to maintain higher quality of the shows. “[In LA] there was this ‘chick singer’ night, but they were doing covers. I feel like we are in the forefront of putting together female singer-songwriters doing their own stuff. I had a booking for those shows, but I turned away all of those, because I just felt like they don’t have what we’re looking for. LA is notorious for booking acts that don’t make any sense together, like having heavy metal, and then, all of sudden, country music.”
Enjoy her singing at Park Hyatt for a limited time. Get to discover why this artist, who took risks going to Vietnam, indeed, has California in her soul.
End Note: Enjoy Shannon Hurley’s soothing voice to welcome this new prosperous year.

American singer plays Park Hyatt by Sunny Rose (Vietnam News)Published on: 04/01/2010
HCM CITY — Park Hyatt Saigon is featuring a new entertainer, Shannon Hurley, a songwriter and pianist from Nashville, Tennessee in the US.
Hurley will perform her own work, including the song Sunrise, a track featured on Ready to Wake Up, her CD.
She says it is her favourite song because it evokes the sweet memory of a love story. It was composed after she and her boyfriend separated. They later resumed their relationship, and are now married.
Her alternative pop style has often been compared to Aimee Mann and Sarah McLachlan, but her songwriting and singing have lifted her to a place that is completely her own.
The Indiana-born artist moved to Los Angeles after studying songwriting with Pat Leonard, a hit writer for Madonna.
She then spent time honing her own material and also became a session musician. By 2005, she was touring with Universal Motown artist Brie Larson, opening for Jesse McCartney, Gwen Stefani, The Black-Eyed Peas and Gavin DeGraw.
This spring saw the release of Shannon’s debut album, Ready to Wake Up, a pop record that pulls in a little help from Shannon’s heavy-hitting friends.
I’m really excited, as this is my very first trip to Asia. I am finding Viet Nam to be a thriving, vibrant place. I am making many new friends and the food is fantastic," Hurley said. "I feel very lucky to be here, especially during the holiday season. There seems to be a buzz around the city in preparation for the new year.
Music fans can spend an evening at Park Lounge in Park Hyatt Saigon listening to Hurely from December 30 to February 18 every day, except Tuesdays. — VNS